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Root writer: I was wrong about "Dr." Umar Johnson ... (but was he?)

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by Songbird, Jul 18, 2017.

  1. Songbird

    Songbird Well-Known Member

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    I read last week's story and quasi-forgot about it till the writer wrote a quasi-mea culpa today.

    A little more than a week ago I wrote two scathing articles about Umar Johnson. I called him a charlatan (I think ... I call a lot of charlatans “charlatan”). I castigated him for taking people’s money without showing them where it went. I said that there was no evidence he ever tried to buy a school or would ever build a school.

    Most famously, I insinuated that he never earned a doctorate. I researched. I looked through the yearbooks of every school he ever attended. I went through the archived graduation programs. I watched videos of the graduation ceremonies. I paid my own money to verify his degrees. To be clear, instead of outright saying that he wasn’t a doctor, I said that I could find no evidence that Johnson had earned a graduate degree, but I knew what I was insinuating. I think I’m pretty good at this writing thing. I knew what people would think.

    I was wrong.

    Read the rest: http://www.theroot.com/i-was-wrong-his-name-is-doctor-umar-johnson-1797016800

    Here is last week's story: http://www.theroot.com/we-fact-checked-umar-johnsons-hotep-tantrum-with-roland-1796798532

    There are still a lot of questions about what Umar did with the $700,000 he has collected not to mention he apparently loves to fuck hookers.
     
    Last edited: Jul 18, 2017
  2. SpeedTchr

    SpeedTchr Well-Known Member

    I have no earthly idea who this is, or what you are talking about.
     
  3. Songbird

    Songbird Well-Known Member

    Try reading the stories.
     
  4. bigpern23

    bigpern23 Well-Known Member

    I'm with SpeedTchr. Why should we read the stories? Who's this dude, and why do we care?
     
    SpeedTchr likes this.
  5. TheSportsPredictor

    TheSportsPredictor Well-Known Member

    I read them. Still don't know or care.
     
  6. Songbird

    Songbird Well-Known Member

    They're interesting stories out of Black America about a well-spoken guy many believe is a scam artist who's bilking poor ignorant folks to build a school for black boys -- and a journalist who's following the money trail.

    It's not so different from televangelist preacher men who squeeze their followers of millions of dollars because god wants them to live lives of luxury. It's about the long con.

    As for why you should care ... I don't care if you care. I thought the quest to report the truth was interesting.
     
  7. bigpern23

    bigpern23 Well-Known Member

    To clarify, I was more asking for a brief explanation of what you were asking us to read and why you thought we would want to read it, to give us some insight to the subject matter so we could decide if the links were worth checking out.

    The original post seemed to assume we knew who that guy is and that we had read "last week's story."

    Thanks for posting, it does sound interesting.
     
  8. Songbird

    Songbird Well-Known Member

    I probably should have had the first cup of coffee ...

    The original post *may* have been ambiguously written but I did post both links in case anyone was interested.

    Yesterday's first post probably should have been what I wrote this morning. I'll go have my first cup of coffee now.
     
    bigpern23 likes this.
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